National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature Inc. in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory | Non-profit organisation

National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature Inc.

Locality: Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

Phone: +61 2 6201 2062

Address: Off Haydon Drive onto University Dr South 2601 Canberra, ACT, Australia

Website: https://www.ncacl.org.au

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24.01.2022 We've been busy planning a fabulous exhibition! For 3 months we have worked with 4 University of Canberra students on their Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) project. All students must complete such a unit that is supervised and marked by academics and their peers. NCACL is their 'client' and their project is to create an exhibition! These students are studying art, graphic design, communication and public relations. We had a big initial meeting where clearly the students were ...overwhelmed but also excited! Could they learn what they needed to know? What if they lacked the skills? Scary! Several of us at NCACL have met with the students over the 3 months. We can honestly say it was a BIG challenge for us too but such a great project. So what exactly did the students do? * Set the parameters of their project with Alex Stalker-Booth, UC's Art Collection Manager, who supervised the project and will award the mark. * Implemented a Gantt chart to monitor deadlines and progress * Met with clients (volunteers from the National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature Inc (NCACL) * Examined the NCACL artwork collection, discussing possible topics for an exhibition * Chose a topic (children’s stories and artwork about dogs) * Researched the NCACL collection and chose original artworks about dogs * Selected themes to organise the artworks * Created panels about their themes and the artists * Created an inventory of the artworks selected * Created a publicity release * Designed a poster to promote the exhibition * Worked with a NCACL volunteer educator to plan educational programs for children * Researched the three featured illustrators’ backgrounds and developed information panels about each *Created information panels about each artwork * Chose material about the preliminary creative process to display in cabinets * Implemented 3-D software to generate and discuss the layout for the exhibition * Communicated regularly with the NCACL clients * Gave a presentation about their work to their peers, academics and others *Mount (first week of May) the exhibition including artworks on walls and arrangement of displays about the creative process So you can see there have been many meetings, emails, frantic moments (always dealt with 'that's life!' comments). The students will be mounting the exhibition the first week of May in preparation for it opening on Monday 10 May. ESSENTIAL DETAILS - it's free, open to all ages Opening Monday 10 May Closing Wednesday 23 June Opening hours Monday-Friday 10.30am-4.30pm Mura Gadi Gallery, the Library, Level B, University of Canberra Bruce, ACT

23.01.2022 Oh how special. Especially now teachers and kids need lots of good online resources - thank you Kids' Book Review for this marvellous resource!

23.01.2022 Who's the just-announced Australian winner of the prestigious Kate Greenway Medal? None other than Shaun Tan for his book, 'Tales from the Inner City' published by Allen & Unwin. Here's the Guardian write-up of this award with this special comment, Never have the bonds between us and the beautiful creatures we share the Earth with been so exquisitely rendered. Did you remember that Gregory Rogers won this same award in 1994 for his illustrations for 'Way Home' written by L...ibby Hathorn? We already know that Aussies are world-class, but it's always good when others recognise this too! https://www.theguardian.com//shaun-tan-first-bame-author-t

23.01.2022 Behind the Imagined 2020 - our journal for 2020 https://www.ncacl.org.au//Behind-the-Imagined-Issue-4-2020 Our Centre published its first annual journal in 1981 - and we're still going! Check out our early issues when we were the Lu Rees Archives. Each editor has brought their own particular passions to the process. We wish to acknowledge Jane for her outstanding (and very patient) editorship over the last few years - she brings our stories to life in words and images. Than...Continue reading

22.01.2022 This was the jacket artwork for the IBBY Catalog from Basel, Switzerland containing annotations for 191 children's books appearing in 50 languages selected by 60 countries as their 'best'. Reproduced by permission.

20.01.2022 ANZAC Day is coming! We love databases and bibliographies. The best part is knowing they may/will be useful! We created 2 on children's books about Anzac. One is an extensive bibliography - over 50 books - freely available from our website here: https://www.ncacl.org.au//NCACL-Graphic-Novels-updated-5-S... Another one was created by an amazing intern we enjoyed so much. She published it on Reading Time online here http://readingtime.com.au/books-anzac-day-bibliography-she/ Pictured here are a just a few of these treasures

20.01.2022 What have we been doing? Apologies for being 'away' and not posting what NCACL has been doing. We have a VERY big project on at the moment and will be launching that in July. It's still under wraps, but we've poured every single minute into that. You know what it's like towards the end!! Meanwhile, before we closed on 23 March due to COVID-19, here we are brewing a new exhibition! The Belconnen Arts Centre is a fabulous community exhibition space and hub of activities for all... ages. We have exhibited with them before and love their inventiveness and passion. Over the last year, we've been planning a 6-wks exhibition and community series of events featuring Graeme Base and his work, 'The Worst Band in the Universe', aimed at YAs and older. Then COVID-19 came along ... Here we are back in early March looking through Graeme's artwork and thinking about possibilities. All was set for an exhibition in October 2020, but it will now be rescheduled for 20 Aug - 3 October 2021. Put this in your diary now for 2021! At this point in time, we all need things to look forward to, right?

18.01.2022 Rosie from Alison Lester's 'Rosie Sips Spiders'

17.01.2022 Facebook post 6 Dec 2020 Hands up everyone who agrees that 2020 has been one very unpredictable and challenging year! Our Centre in Canberra closed for three months during April, May and June. Like everyone else, we continued to do what we could remotely. After reopening, we practiced the usual health restrictions. Within a couple of months, we felt we had conquered the backlog. ... Then . the University of Canberra Library, where we are located, closed two floors for 3 weeks for renovations. We hastily packed trolleys, moved printers and computers and tried to remember everything we would need. Rather than move to another building, we agreed to move to the Library basement where there was a big room we could all fit. We hope to move back upstairs this coming week, all going well. We thought you’d enjoy seeing a few images and hearing about a few of our adventures. During our three weeks in the basement we experienced no air conditioning (we did have 3 fans), no toilets, no electricity on one day and lots of drilling off and on. Most of this was unanticipated. Our mail was delivered to another building, but Library staff (who also moved) kindly played, ‘You’ve got mail’,and visited to see how we were going. Even the handymen around the campus paid us a visit or two, swapping stories of ‘Do you remember?’ and such like. One day workmen on the grounds outside cut a main electrical cable and there was no power throughout the University for four hours. A security guard loaned us his phone which had a light remember we were in the basement! We did especially enjoy the many large tables which allowed several important activities to remain in place for the duration of our 3 weeks rather than packing up every day as usual. Ruth’s laptop was very creatively hooked up to the Internet via a cable that ran along the wall, out the door and down the hall to a computer room where it was hooked up At lunchtime we took our picnic lunches outside for some fresh air and sunlight. We created new lunchtime menus since we had no access to a microwave, a sandwich toaster or a fridge. The NCACL coffee pot took pride of place even though to wash it meant a flight of stairs to climb. We would like to thank the many people in the UC Library, the cleaner who vacuumed up a light globe that exploded, workmen who found us three fans to keep the air circulating and all those who visited and helped us. We all have some pretty amazing stories to tell this year. This is another such story!

16.01.2022 We are over the moon! Jane Covernton, children's book publisher for over 39 years, received an AM in the Australian Honours. Officially, her award is for 'significant service to the literary arts as a publisher of children's books.' For all who know her, it's so much more than that! What passion she poured into children's publishing from the 1980s - There was 'One Woolly Wombat', which sold out before its launch, followed by 'Possum Magic', an Australian bestseller and iconi...c story. Who doesn't love 'Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge'? Jane and her partner, Sue Williams, published so many 'new' creators in their time, many we have come to love like Ann James, Gillian Rubinstein, Craig Smith, Julie Vivas, Mem Fox and so many more. Omnibus published over 680 children's books, an astouding accomplishment. As if starting one publishing house wasn't enough, Jane and Sue left Omnibus and started up Working Title Press in 1997. This is a small publisher creating gem-like stories for the 0-11year old, discovering new talent and capturing much-favoured creators too. That list featured over 108 books including an important collection of Indigenous Dreaming narratives. Some of my favourites from Working Title Press include 'Squeak Street' written by Emily Rodda and illustrated by Andrew McLean and 'Boom Bah! written by Phil Cummings and illustrated by Nina Rycroft. There are others, too many to name here. Working Title Press books live on under the imprint of HarperCollins. What a life! Congratulations, Jane Covernton. We hope you are enjoying retirement - who ever really retires? Before closing this tribute, our Centre wants to say a special thank you to Jane. She donated every book from Omnibus Books and Working Title Press over all these years years. I was the lucky recipient at the Centre to receive these books and write her thank you letters before cataloguing and shelving these books. Writing thank you letters is a bit of a lost art these days, but words easily came to mind and found their way onto these letters then off they went to Jane! Years later Scholastic Australia donated the Omnibus Books Publisher papers to our Centre. This means that the story of this publisher with the biggest of hearts and such clever smarts is available for posterity. A final thank you ... when Jane retired from publishing she sent us a collection of translations (which we adore) and more different editions. So should Jane become homesick for the 790 books she published, she can come visit all her creations. Thank you for all that you have given us, Jane.

16.01.2022 There's nothing like an illustrator talking about his work (along with a couple of helpful kids) - this time it's Marc McBride talking about the 'Glimme', a truly astonishing work of art with a story written by the inimitable Emily Rodda - what a duo

15.01.2022 It's #NAIDOCWeek2020 and we are celebrating this special week. For great information and resources check out the NAIDOC website: https://www.naidoc.org.au/get-involved/2020-themeand We are incredibly pleased to have been involved over the last 18 months in the creation of our freely available database. It was funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment. They also created this animation about the database. We discovered our collection of these books ranks amongst the most comprehensive in Australia, and we continue to enhance this collection. Do come to see us, but if this isn't possible right now, visit our database here https://www.ncacl.org.au Just scroll down and click on the right hand tile!

12.01.2022 Paul Jennings one of Australia's national treasures. Back in the mid-1980s Paul burst on the scene with his series of hilarious short stories like 'Unreal'. Both adults and children looked forward to his incisive and wicked sense of humour. Then came that fabulous television series, 'Round the Twist'. He's written over 100 stories and sold more than 10M books. More recently (2017-2019) he's given us a multi-layered trilogy, 'A Different Dog', 'A Different Boy' and 'A Di...fferent Land'. These are simple, yet deep and symbolic. Rereading these lately, we entered them in our just updated and freely available Cultural Diversity Database here https://www.ncacl.org.au/ncacl-cultural-diversity-database/ Do come visit - just as we added over 35 new books, three more arrived today - MORE reading and writing! But the big news is that Paul has published his memoir, 'Untwisted: The Story of My Life' (Allen & Unwin, 2020). It is unlike usual memoirs - here is part story, part explanation of where his stories come from, how his art reflects his life, and tips about writing and insights into a long involvement in writing and publishing. Settle down for some special time with Paul Jennings with insights from the writer himself here https://www.pauljennings.com.au//4/54-untwistted-home-page

12.01.2022 New free Resource (database) for the times How fortunate we have been! The Australian Government Department of Education, Skills & Employment provided NCACL with a grant over a year to create a database of children's books by and about Aboriginal and or Torres Stait Islander Peoples. We were inspired by the United Nations declaration of 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages. This year highlighted the crucial role that languages play in people's daily lives.... All of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are under threat and require ongoing work to be maintained. We know that we hold a strong collection of children's books in First Nations languages and other books in this area. We want to promote these. We thought we might find 300 books possibly, but we found SO MANY more! The grant provided funds to create the database and to describe over 300 books for children from birth to 12 years of age. We hope for another grant to finish the database for young people through secondary school. There were 25 of us across Australia who read, wrote annotations, and researched amazing free teaching resources for each of these books. This free database is available to everyone anywhere in the world. It is especially useful for those working with children. Besides annotations for each of the 300+ books and hyperlinks to free teaching resources, we have included many different ways to find just the 'right' books. There are Australian curriculum links, the Early Years Learning Framework links, author, title, publisher, date, subject access and free text searching. You can find books in specific languages, books written and illustrated by children, or books by your favourite authors and illustrators, for example. You can share what you find with colleagues using social media links. We wish to thank the project team of over 30 people who contributed in many ways to make this database possible. Today we celebrated with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation their special Indigenous Literacy Day with a small display of some special gems, pictured here with this post. But don't stop here! Come visit our free resource itself! Visit our background page about this website here https://www.ncacl.org.au//welcome-to-the-aboriginal-and-o/ Then visit the page where you discover these very special books https://www.ncacl.org.au/atsi-resource/ Here are some comments people have made so far about this new resource https://www.ncacl.org.au//reviews-and-media-coverage-for-/ We would love to hear from you!

10.01.2022 Ohhhh, such talent and magic! Aren't we lucky to have Alison Lester's talent? There are no others like her loveable characters and stories that zing and touch your heart. Love, love, love seeing and hearing about the creative process by none other than Alison herself!

09.01.2022 Dog Tales - our tale of installation Put a hook on the wall. Hang the picture on the hook - easy peasy - right? That all depends! Four students from the University of Canberra spent four months on this project which was part of their degree requirements. Just some of the things they did included choosing which creators and which works (there are LOTS of artworks about dogs in our Centre), creating detailed labels for each artwork, dividing the 35 works into three themes, ...arranging the artists' creative process in display cabinets, sourcing and putting together profiles of the creators on film, choosing posters and so much more. We at the Centre have worked with them for four months. Our very special Max framed a dozen artworks, normally stored safely in boxes, (perhaps never seen before), just for this exhibition. The students knew very little about children's books and very very little about putting together an exhibition. We did help and they were guided by Alex Stalker-Booth, the University's Art Collection Manager. But this was their project. They worked long and hard this week to install the exhibition - How will it look? Is something missing? Where's that label? It's up now - whew! We open Monday 10 May. The exhibition runs until Wednesday 23 June. We look forward to seeing children and adults coming to see their favourite artists plus DOGS DOGS AND MORE DOGS! We're open for drop-ins Mon-Fri 10.30am-4.30pm. Groups of children can be booked for a special session created for them by contacting [email protected]. You'll find a comfy sofa, a story time rug, a basket of books to savour by our special creators - Ann James, Alison Lester, Bob Graham and Andrew McLean. You'll see films about our creators and an infinite variety of lovable, irascible and affectionate DOGS! We look forward to seeing you.

09.01.2022 Congratulations to those creators on the Prime Minister's Literary Awards Shortlist for 2020 #PMLitAwards We offer our heartiest congratulations to Australia's amazing creators for their storytelling skills and their stunning artworks. The two categories for young people are the Young Adult and Children's. Go find these books. Read them. Celebrate Australia's creative arts for young people at their best. Again, our heartiest congratulations!

08.01.2022 Hallelujah! It's National Volunteers Week Mon 17-Sun 23 May. We want to say a BIG thank you to our amazing, dedicated, enthusiastic & VALUED volunteers! Last year our 25 volunteers clocked up 8,034 volunteer hours accomplishing myriad tasks. Each hour expended was essential. Each task completed was important. Every person is appreciated. Thank you! Do you have volunteers? Here's the official Australian Volunteers website with celebratory resources https://www.volunteeringaustralia.org/get-involved/nvw/

08.01.2022 We are absolutely ecstatic to be the new home for a collection of 10 artworks by some of Australia's most-loved illustrators. A few weeks back, a teacher at Canberra's Holy Spirit Nicholls & Gold Creek Primary Schools rang and offered us this gem-like collection of 10 artworks. We said, 'Yes, please! And thanks so much for thinking of us!' Drum roll ... here are the fabulous creators now safely housed in special coverings, all labelled and ready to show off! Welcome to these... creators' artworks: Tamsin Ainslie, Christina Booth, Tony Flowers, Bob Graham, Leigh Hobbs, Elizabeth Honey, Ann James, Stephen Michael King, Anne Knight (Bell) and Alison Lester. Check out our 'gallery' for a sneak peek! https://www.ncacl.org.au/gallery1/ Each artwork is individually described, measured, and given a unique number, housed according to its special needs and given a location in our ever-growing collection. We'd like to say a special thank you to Max Brown, our 'Keeper of the Arts'. He's been with the Centre for over 10 years and can recount amazing stories and details about our artworks. Here is Max's description of this new collection: https://www.ncacl.org.au//2020/10/Nicholls-Schools-Donatio

07.01.2022 Vale Judith Clarke We all have read one or more or Judith Clarke's 20 luminous novels for young adults. Now we want to pay tribute to a writer who will linger in our memories. Her books will continue to be recommended as 'not to be missed'. My own favourite is 'One Whole and Perfect Day'. To have more than one book by an author you love is priceless. 'Wolf on the Fold' is another favourite. Thank you to Judith Clarke for unforgettable books. ... Books+Publishing has published an excellent tribute here https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au//150829/vale-judith/

05.01.2022 Congratulations to Karen Williams, Executive Director of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation who received the Order of Australia for 'services to Indigenous education through literacy programs'. Among her many achievements, we would like to highlight Karen's initiative to involve Aboriginal children in writing and illustrating their own stories. These showcase young people's imaginations and enable all cultures to share universal stories, and through these, understand each ot...her. Our Centre is the proud recipient of donations of these books which we treasure and share on every occasion. A few examples are included with this post. The ILF's first book is the republication of 'The Legends of Moonie Jarle' which tells the stories of the Butchulla people, the Indigenous people of Fraser Island and the Fraser Coast, Queensland. It was written and designed by Butchulla siblings Moonie Jarl (Wilf Reeves) and Wandi (Olga Miller), both of whom have since passed away. Their stories survive for us all. We at the Centre greatly appreciate the work of Karen Williams and the ILF. Once again, our congratulations on this well deserved recognition.

03.01.2022 Congratulations to Dr Robyn Sheahan-Bright AM - now an AM in the Australian Honours 2021 Our Centre wishes to thank you for your enormous contribution to Australian children's literature over so many years. We admire your astute and penetrating analyses of Australian children's literature published in our much-loved 'Magpies' magazine, your indepth essays for Reading Australia, and the many teaching resources you have created over the years. So many teachers, librarians and r...esearchers continue to benefit from your indepth and stimulating analyses. Your work features in so many of our Centre's authors' and illustrators' research files. Researchers are ecstatic when they discover these! Then there are your magnificent entries (tome-like comprehensive books) for the Hans Christian Andersen award nominations which cannot be equalled for their comprehensiveness and astute understanding of the creators' body of work and their contribution to the field. These represent some of the behind-the-scene contributions that you continue to make for us all. No doubt we are speaking for many Australians in the field of children's literature when we say, 'Well deserved on your AM and our heartiest congratulations!'

03.01.2022 Australian stories travel the world An important part of NCACL’s collection are the 4700 books that have been translated into 65 languages and countries of origin. Not only are these an important part of authors’ and illustrators’ body of work, but they also reflect the global impact of Australian children’s literature and the universality of stories. Many of these NCACL books are not held in any other library in Australia. Most of these have been catalogued and appear on th...e Libraries Australia online database. This is the major source of information about books by Australian authors regardless of language. It means that anyone, anywhere, wanting to read or study the books can discover where they are located. Cataloguing books in languages other than English is a specialist task that requires knowledge of the particular language. We need to outsource their cataloguing to CAVAL, the professional service located in Melbourne. Authors, illustrators, publishers and literary agents are our main source of these translations. Occasionally we find them at the Lifeline Book Fair or used bookshops. Over the last few years, we accumulated 572 translations in 26 languages. Our collection of these has been described as ‘significant’ by an independent assessor. We needed to take action again! Back in 2010 we had accumulated 470 books in 28 languages. What to do? We thought perhaps Embassies might be interested in covering the cost for cataloguing the books in its own language. After contacting each Embassy, seven responded positively as did the Japan Australia Foundation and the Scandinavian Australian Association. With additional donations from individuals and a publisher, we had the needed funds. Following this success we used the same approach for the 2019 backlog. We wrote letters to 24 Ambassadors and to the Dean of the Diplomatic Core explaining our project and seeking their support. We followed up each letter with a phone call a short time later. We discovered that many did not understand what cataloguing involved and its importance. After some perseverance and much explaining six Embassies and a language program in Sydney offered assistance. We also sent out our newsletter requesting donations, and 24 individuals and KPMG also donated. Success! There’s more we don’t send the books to CAVAL in Melbourne. Instead we photocopy the title page and verso of each book and complete a form detailing each book’s unique features. These are then posted to CAVAL. The process is laborious but the NCACL volunteers are up for the challenge. We heard that the box of photocopies arrived today in Melbourne. Luckily, CAVAL staff will be posted the photocopies to their various homes as many workers are in lockdown due to COVID-19. We are very grateful to all our supporters for this very important venture. More details are available from our website here https://www.ncacl.org.au/international-partner/sponsorship/

03.01.2022 Children's books - we think BOOKS! Right? But what about all the characters in children's books? Possums, kangaroos, pilots, dogs, ponies and the like take pride of place in the Centre! But we ran out of space to keep them safe and free from dust. Where to put them? How to keep track of them? We might want to exhibit them and show them to their visiting creators! So, Max, our ever inventive 'Keeper of the Arts', created a special box to house them safely and free from dust and harm, plus we can quickly find them! So Rosie, Noni the Pony, Pug, Harriet, Josephine and others all now live together in a couple of boxes - free from dust, easy to retrieve, and neighbours as never before conceived. Just thought you'd like to know ...

02.01.2022 A new exhibition celebrating canine companionship in children's classics, is now on display at the University of Canberra. The special student-led show includes... original designs and sketches from four award winning Aussie artists. To understand the issues and find out how you can help the future of your local media, visit www.saveourvoices.com.au #WINNews6pm #SaveOurVoices

01.01.2022 Paul Jennings one of Australia's national treasures. Back in the mid-1980s Paul burst on the scene with his series of hilarious short stories like 'Unreal'. Both adults and children looked forward to his incisive and wicked sense of humour. Then came that fabulous television series, 'Round the Twist'. He's written over 100 stories and sold more than 10M books. More recently (2017-2019) he's given us a multi-layered trilogy, 'A Different Dog', 'A Different Boy' and 'A Di...fferent Land'. These are simple, yet deep and symbolic. Rereading these lately, we entered them in our just updated and freely available Cultural Diversity Database here https://www.ncacl.org.au/ncacl-cultural-diversity-database/ Do come visit - just as we added over 35 new books, three more arrived today - MORE reading and writing! But the big news is that Paul has published his memoir, 'Untwisted: The Story of My Life' (Allen & Unwin, 2020). It is unlike usual memoirs - here is part story, part explanation of where his stories come from, how his art reflects his life, and tips about writing and insights into a long involvement in writing and publishing. Settle down for some special time with Paul Jennings with insights from the writer himself here https://www.pauljennings.com.au//4/54-untwistted-home-page